Alvarez throws one pitch too many; Tigers fall to Angels 7-4

Los Angeles Angels' Mike Trout slides safely under the tag of Detroit Tigers catcher Brayan Pena to score on a Josh Hamilton ground out in the seventh inning of a baseball game in Detroit, Wednesday, June 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Detroit Tigers pitcher Jose Alvarez throws against the Los Angeles Angels in the first inning during a baseball game in Detroit, Wednesday, June 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

DETROIT -- One pitch too long. You have to be careful how long you leave a fill-in out there.

The Los Angels Angels of Anaheim milked theirs as long as they could Wednesday, before turning the game over to an already depleted bullpen.

The Tigers left theirs in one pitch too long, as Jose Alvarez gave up a go-ahead, two-run home run to Erick Aybar in the sixth inning, right after a mound visit, and the Angels went on to win, 7-4, extending their winning streak against the Tigers to eight games.

"We asked a lot of him. He got the first two quick outs and then of course base hit and the home run. He did a terrific job. wasn't his fault. He was a little spent, there's no question about that," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "We just couldn't get that sixth inning out of him. They got the first two quick outs, we were feeling pretty good. And you don't expect Aybar to hit the home run. He might get a hit, but you don't certainly expect the home run. Give him credit. He was sitting on a change-up, he got it and he hit it."

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Making his third start of the season in the place of Anibal Sanchez, Alvarez worked in and out of trouble in each of the first four innings, only giving up runs on Trout's homer into the Tigers bullpen.

Approaching his highest pitch count of the season -- in the majors or AAA -- Alvarez gave up a two-out single to Chris Ianetta in the sixth, earning a mound visit from pitching coach Jeff Jones.

One pitch later, he gave up a go-ahead, two-run home run to Aybar, making it 4-3 Angels.

"He asked me how I was, I say 'Good.' He say throw my best pitch, and the first one, he hit. Nothing I can do about it," Alvarez said. "They got me on two pitches, the homers, my best pitches. They were sitting on them. It happens."

It came on his 110th pitch of the night, a hanging change-up that Aybar -- who had three homers on the season -- crushed to left.

"Aybar, man ... that's my fault I didn't tell 'em. When he's on the right side, he's always trying to go deep. He swings really hard. Left side, he's more of a slap hitter," former Angel Torii Hunter said. "He got a change-up up, and he was able to capitalize on that hanging change-up."

Drew Smyly got the Tigers out of the sixth inning, but give up three add-on runs in the seventh, on a walk and a bloop double by Trout, an RBI groundout by Josh Hamilton, and an RBI single by Alberto Callaspo, making it a 7-3 game.

Detroit got one run back in the eighth on a double by Prince Fielder, but that was it, as the Tigers couldn't snap their losing skid against the Angels. They've been outscored 55-21 in the skid, and 43-16 this season.

"I don't know how to say it. I've been around the game for a while and I've seen different teams manhandle one team and they're manhandling us right now," Torii Hunter said. "They're throwing us around like rag dolls."

That had a chance to change with the Angels' late pitching adjustment.

But it didn't.

Minutes before game time, after the national anthem had already been sung, the Angels scratched their slated starter, Tommy Hanson, with tightness in his forearm. That forced one-time Tigers farm hand Billy Buckner, who'd gotten the final out in Tuesday's game, in as an emergency replacement.

"We were actually in the dugout just before the game and (Rob) Picciolo came over and said they had to scratch him and that they were going to pitch Buckner. They did what they had to do," Leyland said. "They said that Hanson tightened up or whatever, felt something in his arm, and they decided to make a change, but that didn't have any bearing on anything."

Buckner came to the Tigers in a June 2010 trade with the Diamondbacks that sent Dontrelle Willis out of town. In his two-month, eight-game stint with the Tigers organization, Buckner had a 9.40 ERA and a 3-5 record at Triple-A Toledo before his release.

"Tonight was actually a tough night for the hitters because they lost their starting pitcher so they were pitching a guy a couple innings, then getting him out, pitching a guy two innings and then getting him out," Leyland said. "So they were seeing a different guy almost every at-bat tonight as the game went on. That's a little bit difficult. We actually swung the bats pretty good."

The Tigers took advantage of the fill-in starter for back-to-back home runs three pitches apart in the first inning. Torii Hunter hit his fourth homer of the season, and Miguel Cabrera his 22nd to make it 2-0.

After Mike Trout's two-run homer tied it up in the top of the third, the Tigers would get the go-ahead run off Buckner in the bottom of the inning. Hunter blooped a double into shallow right field, went to third on Cabrera's fly out -- testing the arm of his former teammate Trout -- then scoring on Prince Fielder's RBI single.

That's all they would score until the eighth, despite the short-handed Angels having to use six different pitchers.

"We faced six different pitchers today. Felt like spring training. We had different looks every at-bat," Hunter said. "But there's no excuses. We gotta go out there and do our jobs and battle back. We did. Don't get it twisted. We always go out there and play hard. Don't ever get that twisted. We just couldn't come back."